Emily_CO_1

The classroom observation I chose to do first was Alexandra Ramos’s level 1C grammar class.  On the elevator ride up to the fourth floor, I started a conversation with the other person in the elevator, who is from Brazil, and he happened to be going to the class that I was observing.  One of my conversation partners, Soren, was also in the class. Normally I would expect the students in a 9:00 grammar class to be very sleepy and out of it, but everyone seemed fairly cheery (maybe due to Ramos’s friendly disposition).  She started with recording attendance and asking everyone how they are and telling them good morning.  Then, she went up to the whiteboard to begin reviewing the simple present tense.  She did a good job throughout the class of asking the students to tell her what certain terms mean or to give examples.  This strengthens their ability to produce sentences and verbalize them on their own rather than merely being fed the information.  Most of the students seemed attentive and comfortable in participating and asking questions.  When one student asked her a question about a different kind of sentence, she made sure to come back to his question and explain.  It is evident that she cares about her students and their learning.  First, they reviewed how to do negative statements, the present continuous tense, and turning statements into questions as well.

 A fun activity she did for practicing the present continuous tense was pulling up a Google image search of famous paintings and having the students describe what is happening in each painting.  The students gave some good example sentences, and when someone said something like, “they are excited,” the instructor made sure to ask, “is that in the present continuous tense?” When the student inquired, “exciting?” the instructor used this opportunity to stop and explain why exciting in that case was not the present continuous tense, writing examples on the board for visual aid. 

Another activity that she did was getting the students to write a list of five family members that they think about the most and what they think they are doing right now.  She walked around the class as they were writing to see if they needed help or had questions.  Then she modeled a real life situation and utilized role-play in practicing the present continuous tense.  She picked a student and asked them to pretend that they are calling someone to try and figure out what their loved one is doing.  For example, one student wanted to know what his brother was doing and pretended to call his workplace.  Someone else hypothetically answers the phone and the student asks, “What is my brother doing?” Then the student would have to come up with an answer: “He is working right now.”  She repeated this process with several more students.  This activity puts the concept into context and helps the student remember how it is used.  At the end of class she told her students that she would give them two exercises to do tomorrow that review the present continuous tense and questions.  This is a good idea because that way she will have a tangible way to evaluate whether or not all of the students understand.  Some of the students in class today probably need a little more practice.  I noticed a little hesitance and uncertainty from some of the students today, but maybe it was just because those students are more introverted learners.

I was given the impression that Alexandra Ramos is someone who cares about her students and wants them to understand.  After class, she even wanted me to give her some of the notes that I took from observing her class today so that she can improve as a teacher.  I told her that I would email her this blog write-up.  :)